PS 




UMBUS. 











LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

?d^-*t3 

&PV- 6o}i"]ri0|t 5^0. 

siici±v.y...'}...C7 

DNITEB STATES OF IMEKICA. 



sfg^PS3k 




wm^m^^sms^^^^ 




COLUMBUS 



POEM, 



JOHN EDWARD HOWELL. 



JOHN EDWARD HOWELL. 



NEW YORK : 

THE HOWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
35 & 37 Vesey Street. 



1S93. 















f^ 






COLUMBUS. 



— What Enigma, this, 
E'en Isabella's jewels haste to solve? 
Spain had an empty coffer, but, for these, 
Whose flash of scorn, well, nigh, replenished it 
Nor, had Columbus sailed, or, not, from Spain 
But, for the epoch, by her jewels, made. 
Ten thousand crowns, besides, three caravels — 
Is not Columbus, mad, and Isabel? 
Half thought so, Ferdinand, with Arragon, 
As, he, who pushing France ward, on an ass. 
To Isabella's plea, retraced his steps, 
To snatch a precious jewel, for Spaiu's brow, 
She may not lose, to any accident, 
lis blaze, as constant as the polar star's. 
Four centuriep, ago, Queen Isabel 
Had pledged her jewels to a mariner's 
Conceit, of nearer India : thence the crown 
Of Leon and Castile, flashed with more gems, 
Than, tears, Columbus shed t' ingratitude. 



CX)LUMBUS. 12 

Who, neither, found Cipango, nor Cathay, 
Yet, stood upon the threshold of a world, 
Flung, wide, the door, when, in a sailor slii^t, 
And scratched his name upon a window 2)ane. 
Vext, all the manhood of the ages, since, 
That, he who died, in irons, to his zeal 
For man, failed, of a name^iake in a sphere. 
Yet, he, whose chains, were with his corse, in- 
terred, 
Has slept till resurrection and, anon, 
Two worlds shall crown the patient Genoese, 
Who died, unmindful, he had cleft a sphere. 
Dreamt, he, but, skirted Asia, in the Isles, 
His caravels had touched at : had he seen 
The Continent, he sought not, he, yet, found, 
What mighty thumps, his joy, for th' waning, 

throbs. 
Of his despairing heart, that burst, to chains? 
Yet, th' hemisphere is his, whatever name. 
It bears, or, may — Columbia, eternized, 
By the sailor's footi^rints, on San Salvador. 
The smile, of Isabel, pursues each ray 
Of Western sunshine, while, th' ingratitude 
Of Ferdinand, toward a brave mariner, 
Assures, to her, the plaudits of all time, 



COLUMBUS. 13 

Whose gems bad won, if, Siiain had not, a 
World. 

As the Venetian Polos, sire and son. 

Two centuries, before him, of the East 

Astounded Europe, in whose startling tales 

Of the Great Khan, Cipaugo and Cathay, 

Columbus had snufft riches — from their hoard 

Of jewels, dazzling Venice, half the flash 

Of his expectant eye — who, had he dared 

To debate Ptolemy, had, never sailed. 

Who sailed, the Earth, a plane, inspired to seek 

Adventure, in the East, of Polo found; 

His route, a gift to commerce, but the gold 

Castile, The Church, Columbus, had not spurned. 

Dismist from Court, to Court he had appealed, 

Discoiaraged, not disheartened, still pursued 

His dream of nearer Asia: age, itself, 

Was leering at him ; poverty began 

To sew his tatters into seemly robes 

To stand in, before kings: if, irony 

Had stirred his genius into comedy. 

Then, vi^hat a farce, his failures, ere the hour 

A woman set the common nay aside, 

A tragedy, in its catastrophe. 



COLUMBUS. 14 

Tho' in its plot the rescue of a World: 
The ink-horn, Isabella's, while, the pen, 
Was his, dipt in it — on whose cockle shells 
Th* Atlantic Ocean raised her veil and smiled. 

A sailor, with a lantern, in his head; 

A genius, half, discovered — in the role 

Of fancy, crowned with vision; in the realm 

Of reason, autocratic; as, a man, 

The ornament of manhood, when the worth 

Of manhood was debated: fortitude, 

Pronounced, as was his clemency, confest; 

If, sanguine, to a fault, the fault, itself, 

Surprised new lands; not visionary, then, 

He had not sailed from Palos for Cathay; 

Persistency of purpose, ardor, zeal. 

Patience with shrewdness, hope, dexterity; 

With self-respect, au appetite, for fame. 

That, but, on joints of fair achievement feeds, 

Were qualities, his own, by eminence. 

Columbus, tho' a bigot, to an Age, 

Of bigotry, prevails in history, 

Scathless, against detraction, infinite; 

Sharing a name, immortal, Isabel. 

— Yet, of thy womb he sprang, O Italy; 



COLUMBUS. 15 

So, of her laurels, Spain must proffer thee; 
Thine, an exacting mother's privilege 
To swell with the lad's honors, whom, the sea, 
Kemarking brave, when age had sobered him. 
Insured his voyage to San Salvador, 
Commerce, for ports in Asia, underwrit. 
But, for the Church, on what, yet, earlier day, 
Some other sailor might have plowed the seas 
Hoping new lands ? — for the inveterate foe 
Of man, in God's name, had denounced a curse 
On him, had proven the earth, spherical. 
And, but, the servile liege, of yonder sun. 
Wiuds, dead, ahead, with th' devil, in th' hull, 
Man pushed discovery, with piety. 
Such as inspired Columbus to have vowed 
To rescue, yet, the Sepulchre of Christ, 
His cruises, gainful: the Crusader"s dream 
Still, lingered, in the faithful Mariner, 
The Cross, his pennant; in a Hemisphere, 
Unveiled, to Europe, closed the last crusade. 

Had not Columbus — that, some sailor had 
Stemmed western seas, in quest of Asia's shores, 
Midway, arrested by a Continent, 
Or, Isles, contiguous, had not withered one 



COLUMBUS. 16 

Of all Columbus' laurels. He had done 

What, no man hod done: He had raised a point 

Half Europe jeered at — which, to scanty means, 

Of mutiny, confronted, he resolved. 

For rare adventure, the incentive found 

In sudden riches, pray, what mariner 

That, since, has made discovery thro' his, 

But owes his conquest to tlie Genoese? 

In fetters to the envy of his Age, 

The Muse of history may well rleuy 

To envy, further privilege, to wrest 

From his ambition, its confest reward. 

Too much for one, 'twere not enough for two, 

To halve between them, without loss to both, 

Of prime renown, that seldom favors twins. 

As solitary as that genius proved 

Equipt to have achieved it; since 'twas he 

Who argued Asia in the channel slept 

He meant to traverse — tho' geography 

Leapt from the curious log, Columbus kept. 

Spain had reduced the Moslem, yet, the ring 
Of good Toledo steel enchants the air: 
The Cavalier, to peace, breathed restively — 
Whereat, Adventure seized him, merciless, 



COLUMBUS. 17 

And cast him, armed, adrift for shores, unknown. 

Chivalry pining, went to sea, to die 

Or win for Spain, new lands. 'Twas fabled, too. 

How western rivers rolled o'er beds of gold; 

Therein, an argument fi>r hacking steel 

Behind the mask of Christ — the pagan soul's 

Salvation, for his hoard: with which exchange 

Cupidity smiled, pleased, while, bigotry 

As factor, in the deal, snatched hull the gold. 

The brave Venetian was a pendulum 
With arc from Spain to England, who on each 
Reflected lustre, thro' discoveries, 
Ensuing his, who made it feasible 
To scour the Atlantic; thus a Continent 
From Labrador to the Tropics, hove in sight 
To Ferdinand and the Henries: Cabot's keels 
Plowed ample furrows to high latitudes, 
By Equatorial regions, flapping sails 
Within Brazilian waters: yet, wherein 
A glory, his, with not a birth-mark on. 
Had traced its dawn to First Discovery ? 

Amerigo, the Florentine, was fired 

By the bold Mariner, whose eye and voice. 



COLUMBUS. 18 

With each familiar, so enchanted him 

He navigates his wake, and marvelous, 

A Hemisphere, as its discoverer, 

Bears his, who sailed to view what he had found 

Whose 7iaine it bears not, each unfortunate 

In his geography. Who, later, stood 

Godfather for a sphere, by a false name, 

Vespucci's, heard it christened; yet, to him 

Who hath achieved, due honor must arrive, 

And not to him, who hath not —history 

Is constantly revis6i^, to more light 

On, faded archives. In both light and heat, 

The race is more delighted than in whence 

Each may have sprung, or springs — tho' wherein 

men 
Are factors, equity shall never cease 
Eepaiiing wrongs, and mending epitaphs, 
Thus, to the dead awarding that denied 
Their challenge, living. 

The cavalier De Leon, farther North, 
Would seek the Fountain of perpetual youth. 
To bathe therein, renewed — and Florida 
Is witness to Lis dream; the Fountain, not 
In the Bahamas, nor the Continent, 



COLUMBUS. 19 

He, as an Island, gave to Ferdinand. 

Still, had the Norseman glimpst thro' polar frost 
The icy locks of a huge Continent, 
Whose feet disport, in waters tropical, 
Columbus saw not: had the Norseman swam 
Past Barnegat, past Hatteras and snuft 
The blown Bermudas, he had spread a tale 
Thro' Iceland, that had vext the sea with gulls 
Winging the Norsemen, hither; e'en to them, 
In balmy winds, in ever-blooming flowers, 
In fruit, that craves not culture, but a hand 
To pluck its bounty, might have proved, a charm 
To bathe, in sunshine, their frost-bitten live-. 

Here is that Land, tlie ancient dreampt had been; 

Who cocooned it, in fable, which, belike 

In Atalantis had gone down the M'ave, 

Unresurrected — yet, behold! it risen. 

The virgin world of romance and of song: 

Tho' old as Thebes, still, old, when Thebes was 

young ; 
The most mysterious, unmysterious half, 
Of man's important, unimjiortant sphere. 
O, for a dredge had scoured th' Atlantic's bed. 



COLUMBUS. 20 

With the Pacific's for a single hint, 
Of what, she has been, if a hint be there, 
Ere, 3'et, Columbus : life disguised by paint. 
Wampum and feathers; life in architraves, 
Buried, profoundly, in a tropic soil, 
Fragrant, of Empires, gone — ia proof, indeed, 
That but insists on, more. Here, if unearthed, 
Man's early fortunes, Egypt had divulged 
Her own enigma, and her mystery 
Had found a solvent, in a hemisphere, 
The Elder, with such incidents of youth, 
As i)alm it off, as Nature's, newly born. 

Yet Nature may have sunk a Continent; 

Its warts and mountain peaks remarked in Isles 

Of the Atlantic — whence, perhaps a proof 

Of man's antiquity, e'en, more remote, 

Than, revrlations from the cave, or drift; 

Or, proof, a Western Continent was known. 

However vaguely, to the Orient. 

What, Plato learned, thro' Egypt we have heard, 

Of Plato, garnished : the Canary Isles, 

With th' Azores, in either, witnesses 

To Land, whereof they were— whereof, to-day, 

They bloom, survivors — if, the dream be true, 

Of an Atlantis, lost. 



COLUMBUS. 21 

Four hundred years, in either heiQisphere, 
Alone, in history, wherein, remarked, 
For man's material vantage, or, wherein. 
For vision, due heroic .surgery; 
Wiierein, for nascent freedom — fit, it seems. 
Both worlds i^artake a common holiday, 
And on the spil, by Europe's Mariner, 
Devised to sequent Agf s, give his fume, 
A mortal whiff, that hath immortal wing. 

In Hendrick Hudson's shadow, hugging close 

New Amsterdam, whose slice of commerce feels 

Manhattan shrink to its necessities; 

She, a kaleidoscope of either World, 

And whence the New is, ever, advertised — 

Peaceful as sportive dolphins, Europe's fleets 

Here, come to anchor, salvo the renown 

Uf the dead Admiral, who flagged for her 

Lands, she conceded to descendent swarms. 

Theirs, manhood to develop, to new skies, 

Plastic, to factors, in both sun and soil : 

Who, bearing Europe with (hem, still, were bred 

To premises, that urged expeiiment, 

With an unLeard-of accent and surprised 

Europe, wherein, Opinion, if supreme, 



COLUMBUS. 22 

Is capable of power, intelligent. 
Four centuries have so remodelled man, 
Two Hemispheres are one. save wherein yet, 
Twain, to tradition. It must demonstrate 
Life's clear advance, in that, fraternal guns 
Met, to do honor to the Genoese. 
Laud most the comity concerned therein, 
And deal to power, a blow with iron fist, 
Whose, no just cause, had strained the bonds of 
peace. 

In the Infanta, gleams the Crown of Spain, 
With such a flawless jewel — royalty, 
In her, may placate Isabella's shade, 
Whose World she enteis, as a Nation's guest, 
Within her welcome — Spain's. 

Tis a clear honor to have sprung of loins 
That have done man much service, in a life 
Of thought or action — and there still survives 
An honor., d line of the great Admiral, 
Which, Spain ennobled when Columbus had. 
Whose, living to wear home, his garlands — dead. 

Of th' Arts of peace, of e'en the Art of war, 



COLUMBUS. 23 

A cosmorama, what, so masterful, 

As such a canvas, to impress the Age 

Thro' deadlier guns, to swell the means of peace, 

Thro' gains in peace, to augment the meuns of 

war ? 
So, what time fitter than when Nations join 
To laud a Sailor on the Hemisphere 
To Europe, he unveiled ? Competitiv , 
The Arts of industry, at one, are found 
As civilizers, foremost. Commerce hath 
The Age afloat and seta the Age, ashore, 
"Whenever she makes port : so marvelous 
That part she plays, in progress — life had been 
A hushman's, to all latitudes, denied 
The riches in her hull and from her log 
A World's peacemaker's message, polyglot. 

Nor, had Aladdin's lamp, if to this day 
Exposed to friction, such a Vision raised 
To outright wonder, as sits regally 
On the Lake's shore — to half a century 
Indebted only— wherein, Art with Art 
Contending, well anticipates to score 
An Annus Memordbilis, for aye. 



COLUMBUS. 24 

While, Lusitania, by bold seaujanship, 
Doubled the jewelled heel of Africa, 
SiJain stared at the Pacific, swum the strait, 
Found half the globe, a waste of billowj' seas, 
^Vhose archipelagoes are, even, yet. 
Withholding data, from geography. 
To match discovery, by land and sea. 
Dismissing Aristotle, half -infirm, 
Arguing the heavens, aright -debating man, 
Eeason, to units, brought him, at a blow. 
She, without precedent, for half, she did, 
Saw, in much driftwood, promise of new land 
Her canvas strained for : it was seamanship 
That, often, cast the lead ; oft of the skies, 
Entreating sea room; it was confidence 
In man, as man, untried, put, to the test. 
To disadvantage, man's, with the test, sus- 
tained. 
A vaster hemisphere, of reason, found 
In th' waste, outlying, than Spain scourged for 

gold; 
While, on that hemisphere, ere Spain had done 
Her search for i iches, she enthroned herself, 
In th' name of Freedom, tho' of later loins, 
Than, theirs, of Marathon — yet, like, their own, 



COLUMBUS. 25 

With, for the Isles, of Greece, .1 hemisphere. 
With, for an Attica, a Continent. 

Yet, sprung more freedom, of the Pilgrim's 

pluck, 
Than from his dogmas ; for, his faith, in God . 
Developed faith, in man, with tomahawks, 
Arrows and scalping knives, the incidents 
Of his experience. To his firelock, faith 
Lent execution : in the Puritan, 
The dying throb of the Age of Faith, survived. 
For tomb and holy grail, the knight had fought 
With, ever, on his crest, as, in his heart, 
Reminders of his oath, to- womanhood, 
In her, his heart confest :- the Puritan, 
God— only, God, his, not a license, man's 
But, were a penance, to the Cavalier : 
Yet, his was knighthood, tho' unhorsed, afoot, 
That had encountered polar frost, for Heaven. 
Enthusiasm, from a woman's arms. 
Ventured to Jewry, in the pious knight : 
Exchanged for zeal, inspired by th' liberty, 
To think, aloud, tho' in a wilderness, 
The knighthood of the Pilgrim, served the State, 
Half, by the very error , due, to faith. 









^ 


J 






Jfi] 




: ■; f^ 


,^ 


r"- *W 


^^^w' 




"_'^" • IP 


:::^'--^ 




*%l| 


fl 


r- ' • »" ' sr 




W i. 








4^ if . zj 

OQ 



COLUMBUS. 26 

A commonwealth, to Britain, mounts a throne 
With Cromwell's warning ringing in both ears : 
But, to the acreage, the Pilgrim found, 
A Commonwealth, into a State, resolves ; 
Both oceans, heaving vantage and defense. 
Arguing, the popular will, perpetual. 

— Of a virgin world, 
Europe ran on, as, if, an Eastern tale : 
Then, having sliced it up, she cast the bits 
Among her courtiers : yet, the liberty 
Of thought, outsailed the eager colonist, 
Safe, here, to bid him welcome, as, he set 
His foot, uncertain, where, he set it down. 
— "Who, in the dreary daybreak, offered fight 
To th' Briton, by Leonidas were led. 
Spartan, to broader freedom, where, they fell. 
Than, at Thermopylae. Courage is the same 
In every age, but, never, to the blast 
Of every bugle, equal : valor clings 
To the dam's breast, a babe, forever, fed. 
With th' roilk, that flushes heroes. Any blade 
Outranks Toledo's, if, it slash its way 
Clean, to a throne and force it to do right : 
Such valor is an epoch; such was, theirs. 
From Lexington to York town, facing odds, 
For common justice. 



COLUMBUS. 27 

'Tis ours, who have it — theirs, who capture it; 
So, runs the doubtful haw, time, still sustains; 
Meum and tuum, with few sanctions, yet, 
But, smell of burnt gunpowder. Liberty 
Hath, then, the Western Hemisphere, her own, 
First, in the right, as, of discovery, 
Next, in her mustering arms, had held it, fast. 
Yet, if her title lack an element 
Of strength, sh3 finds it, in the weal of men, 
Which, once, despaired of — lo! her title fails. 
Her guns were spiked, her gallant gunners slain, 
Her paps, torn, by more arrows, than, yon sun 
Had quenched, twanged at him — while the out- 
raged seas 
Had swampt her Continents. 

— What shall save 
Her cities from pollution and her soil 
From felony and murder and assure 
Liberty, to Americans? — her soil 
To husband, well, for free-born citizens? 
Better, her land, a howling wilderness, 
Than, rocking, to tbe fortunes of a mob. 
Majorities may have the ring of gold, 
Or, the false ring of guineas, counterfeit : 
Minorities, thias, govern, not, in right. 



COLUMBUS. 28 

Of the minority, in reason's own, 

Wbei'eby, tbey govern, who prove competent : 

It, the same right, that, all majorities 

Wield, to intelligence, or, lose, to none 

— Where'er opinion sways a State or Eealm, 

In party-spirit, its palladium ; 

Of power, that had encroached, on th' popular 

will 
The prompt corrective : it, to flagging zeal, 
That would assert rights, yet, imrecognized. 
Re-stimulation — while, the common mind. 
To clarify and raise, a forum, whence, 
Incessant disputation. 
— Freedom, in capitals, on every page, 
Of ad captandum volumes proves, how near 
Eelated, freedom is to printer'., ink, 
In half, the world's esteem — while, platitudes, 
That, like the music-monger's popular airs, 
Preserve a cruel sameness, stir the wax. 
In drowsy listeners' ears. 

What, these shores expect 
Is sweat, to till them, not the irony 
0£ labor, the East starves to : not, an eye 
In search of unearned guineas, but, an arm 
To cleave the oak, or furrow the fat soil 



COLUMBUS. 29 

For willing harvests— an American, 

Ere, he has lost his sea-legs, would, in each. 

Ere, he has sworn allegiance, hither, come ; 

Land, left behind him, thence, a memoi-y. 

'Tis treason to America, wherein. 

Allegiance is half-hearted— while, the gold, 

Had, from America, were, justly, hers, 

To build her fortunes, broadening, to more sons. 

Him, here, to find a pocketbook and stem 

The ocean ferry, homeward, Bhoiild receive 

As many lashes, as half-eagles his. 

He would steal ofE with. 'Tis not Griqua-land, 

Whence, with, of gems, a handful, to take flight ; 

A land, a home, 'tis not a halting-place. 

Adventure flags, her own, from the Andes' peaks 

And th' Rocky Mountains : populous, enough. 

To formulate a destiny, she hath 

Ignored her antecedents, as a world, 

Wherein, the outlaw sought a heritage, 

Which, desijite justice and the rights of man, 

His, to give false direction : henceforth, man's 

To culture manhood, that vocation, theirs. 

Who venture, hither. 



COLUMBUS. m 

Under what specious guise, did Conscieccelate, 
Revive the Phallus and the orgies crown, 
With plural marriage, till the virgin soil 
Of Utah, swarms, with saints-in-bastardy V 
Freedom, unwary, miast have closed her eyes, 
On half a Continent, while, to the chin, 
Immersed, in gain, by the Atlantic's roar, 
Deaf, to the wail, of butchered chastity. 
And, yet, the Mormon lingers, less, to purge 
His still, transparent life, of lechery, 
Than, to the law, to veil it — and behind 
Impervious arras, to spread wider bunks. 
Thus, fitly, maskers, behind leaves of brass 
Etched, with much drivel, still entice their dujies 
To slavery, not African, but worse. 
Thro' a credulity, that, at a gulp, 
A coach-and-six had bolted and cried — more i 
— Here, if no stage. 
To Europe re-enact, as Europe was ; 
A drama, Europe, as she is, had failed. 
That plague of empire, foimd in vicinage 
Perplexes Europe, who each problem solves 
Thro' ever-swelling fleets and armaments : 
Analogy, at fault, in feudal power 
And power, one step from a Democracy. 



COLUMBUS. 31 

Men, in the past, were freedmen and wherein 
Born, freemen, yet, to reason and to pluck. 
Prone to enact the Roman — tyrants t weep 
Man's heart-strings for a viol — give his eye, 
The gladiator, he commits the State 
To wanton cohorts. Liberty responds 
To moral purpose, free to will and do : 
Is less, conspicuous option to enjoy 
One's sweat, as one elects ; freedom as yet, 
Seen, as a larva, to the imago, 
A lexicon revised some ages hence 
Had served her fitly— of his thoughts meanwhile 
Eesolving into justice; man, confest, 
An acqiiisition of his intellect. 
Life, here, is tentative, with but the link 
Of common human natiire, to unite 
Man's fortunes with the past : his, liberty 
With men and means to do whate'er she would, 
If, when done, wisely — to light save her own, 
None, safer that the dog star's : liberty 
In man, a knight to his own chivalry. 
Is reason against wampum — politics, 
With precedent against it, but the Crown 
Meant for a feudal prince, man snatched and 
wears. 



COLUMBUS. 32 

Less, in the tact of suffrage, thauin tb' light 
That casts the ballot, freedom — argument 
For more light, never done : in liberty, 
A higher scholarship, than had sufficed 
To relish Homer, to drive smartly home, 
Her golden tent pins ; to instil in toil 
A craving, next to bread, for aliment 
Had twisted moral purpose round her thews 
And in each nook and corner of the brain 
Had occupation. 

Not, greater Europe, but America 

In sympathy with mountain, lake and plain. 

Her regal betterments — their privilege 

To build who will, with square and trowel, hers. 

The pohcy of joint America 

Eesents dictation: since, in politics, 

The policy of Europe is her own, 

So, on the Western Hemisphere, i^roceeds 

An argument for power, American. 

No mirror for America, not wrought 

Of her own silver; hers no threshing floor 

But th' prairies she has harvested ; her strength. 

In sons and many, who confess the plow. 

Yet argue freedom; on opinion stood, 



COLUMBUS. 33 

Unprojjt of bayonets, who propt thereby, 

Had fallen on her sword, a suicide. 

Democracy, with welts, like Attica's, 

Is the first milestone, past a virtuous State, 

Whatever, Art, or Culture warrant there. 

E'en, if her soil be yet the gamesters' stake, 

Whence, rules of play but from the gamesters, 

sat? 
Their arms had queried. If, a derelict, 
Who, in mid-ocean, have the craft, in tow. 
What admiralty, but the better steel 
Had wrested from them ? 

— In courageous sons. 
In gold and silver, subject to her draft, 
With Nature's seal on half, unbroken yet. 
In plow, in loom, in forge, a trinity 
Of factors, that to famine, fire and sword, 
While, heedful, breathe of apprehension, free; 
In single marriage, with unshaken vows. 
In maidens, taught the distaff and the stars. 
In lads, taught how to clamber into men, 
In fathers, who remember they have sons, 
In mothers, who had silenced they are wives. 
In fields of corn that ripen into brains, 



COLUMBUS. 34 

In demagogues as rare as if from God, 

In patriots as thick as summer flies, 

In conscience, with no cast in either eye, 

In justice blind as ever to who pleads — 

A Future, for America, or none. 

In th' English language, the North Continent 

Hath unity beyond both steam and steel, 

And tU' electric flash on treason's trail : 

Freedom, therein, not polyglot, but theirs 

The English tongue, as if vernacular, 

Unargued, whence met there. What argument 

Therein, for conscience, in a license, wide 

As freedom to no law, but each man's will? 

What plea for rights not native to the soil ? 

While Europe eyes her scales, discretion here, 

Pursues opinion — or to lend it wing — 

Or, thwart its vantage, when inimical 

To popular freedom — man, that uppermost, 

In man, the many : in America 

Of either Ocean severed from the Past, 

Man, to his intuitions, breathes restored. 

A nation, if of soldiers under arms. 
Stagnates to peace and burns for war to let, 
For freshening throbs in life that had survived. 



COLUMBUS. 35 

Her own blood freely : in a nation, free, 

A soldiery of citizens, in peace, 

Impli s not blood to opportunity, 

A country's power, e'en how invincible, 

Hers, one estate, Kings, Lords, and Commons, 

— man. 
— Courage long bottled may have turned to air 
Occasion come to prove it — to the stress 
Of an emergence, courage raw, defies 
Oft, odds and weatheretl files. 

In men's traditions of a Church and State 
Propt of each other — in Power secular, 
With violent presumption against man, 
Investitiare Divine — in the still flow 
Of that insidious stream, a mythic Past, 
Per23etual menace to America. 
Yet, in the Common School, the common mind 
Hails light enough to urge it to seek more. 
While the Press winds it in a comet's tail. 
And Science airs to keep her secrets best. 
Thro' emulation, from the sculling match 
To Senatorial combat-, leadership 
Enchanting many, narrows t ) the few 
Who fill with honor, place. If, ever true, 



COLUMBUS. 36 

Ambition seeks the honors of the State, 

The State rewards Ambition : to this day 

The gladiator of the dexterous steel 

Is hero, to all p)eoples, if he fall 

To shafts of envy — in his cutting off, 

In sight of power, his apotheosis, 

A nation, prostrate — while, th' incumbent, dead 

May leave a corpse, so shrunken to the pomp. 

That waits his burial, as to argue home. 

He is, the throne, who fills it. 

A race of men, tho' not autocthones, 
Yet, veritable products of The West, 
Her soil, her skies, her climate, liberty 
Photographed in the humblest countenance 
Defines that type of life, American. 
Freedom of thought forbids intolerance. 
Yet, Conscience, if a clever mask for shame 
Treason, or immorality — what, then? 
Imperium, in imperio — possible. 
To a false conscience, were not to one true , 
Loyalty to the State found broad enrugh 
For every creed at peace, and not, at war 
With human nature : altho' pertinent, 
Why yet retain the supernatural. 



COLUMBUS. 37 

A word, for something, men know nothing of, 
Who beg the question, if a fact, at all ? 
The State forecloses what had thwarted her, 
In re-disfcributing to men, the powers, 
Confided to her— by her seal, thereon. 
Inviolable. — 

The future, of all Power, is equity, 

Or, re-construction ; not a plea is left 

For Power, an heirloom, as, a guarantee. 

Against dismissal : in dynastic blood, 

But, a presumption, in his favor, sat. 

To sway a Kingdom. What an impetus 

To wholesome manhood, were the fall of caste ; 

Whence, Asia's blight, whence Europe's sallow 

fields, 
Which, well disguised, would cross th' Atlantic 

strait ? 
Men are, here, fitly, if to ascertain 
The soundness of that bond, of Nature, sealed, 
She forfeits, to man's failure to achieve 
High aims, she fosters, in him— in th' event 
The earth shall prove his masters' — his reward 
Still, but, the dole, begrudged a villien's sweat. 
Freedom appears, but breaches in the walls 



COLUMBUS. 38 

Of men's traditions ; man's, all conquests, hence. 
In wider breaches — all her riders cast, 
Who mounts the fleetest steed, e'er j-et bestrode. 
But, most siire-footed — he, with thrice the dash 
Of Knight, historic : with his mettle, thrice. 
Time, thrice as precious, purpose, thrice as high ! 

— Who will, come in — but, let him, at the door, 

Cast off his sandals, careful, not, to bring 

The old world hither— his, t' accept the new, 

As, he shall find it : to her pupilage, 

Submiss, a neophyte of liberty : 

Here, both his school of morals and of light ; 

Here, an American or, here, amiss : 

Here, the one flag, his heart must throb with 

raised ; 
His life, in peace, found, gainful, to it, furled. 

The Social State is man, with pared nails, 
Unknotted hair and beard — with face and hands. 
Pare, to both lye and water, and himself. 
Wrapt, or, in homespun, or, in broadcloth, sat, 
T' enjoy the fact of life, with other men, 
Found, like him, willing, both, to eat of salt. 
And break their bread, together. There had been 
No mystery, in life, man had not solved, 



COLUMBUS. 30 

Its data, laid before him — 'tis, to loss, 

Of facts, philosoj)liy, is, at a stand. 

All rights of man and rights of property. 

If, not, inviolate, no social state. 

Give men the rights, e'en rodents have, to house 

And hold it, sacred, their own industry. 

The world's woof is barbaric, with stray threads 

Of culture, in the warp, whose tints unite 

To dominate the glare and hint the eye. 

Of th' harmony of virtue. 

— What, a blown rose, to breathe of. Ages, hence, 
Freedom, may, haply, be ? Haste, vainly, makes 
An argument for freedom, that involves 
No preparation— Freedom, slow to learn. 
How, to, oft, ford the Seine and wash her feet, 
Quit, of blood, always. — Who, of all men, knows, 
How, near, he sleeps to freedom, or, how far. 
From chains, that wait his ankles? What, so fit. 
As, her slashed flag, to summit, yet, staunch heaps 
Of putrefaction? — The concluding act 
Voicing the drama, dips, th' catastrophe, 
In colors, fast, as Tyre's. — Humanity 
Seemed, with the earth, a plane, a horizon 



COLUMBUS. 40 



Wide, as a nomad's t^-nt— to the earth, sphered, 

Humanity, resolved into a globe, 

That swings, the, only, known, celestial sphere. 



Finis. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



iiliililliilii>i 



009 296 556 9 f 



